The present invention relates to a system and a method for packaging articles, particularly food articles such as poultry, cheese, fresh red meat, and smoked and processed meat.
Vacuum packaging in heat sealable plastic bags is a conventional way of packaging food items such as poultry, meat, and cheese. Vacuum packaging typically involves placing the food item in a heat sealable plastic bag and then evacuating air from the bag and thus collapsing it about the contained food item. The bag is then heat sealed in its evacuated condition so the food item becomes encased in a generally air-free environment. Typically, the bag is a heat shrinkable bag, and after the heat sealing step, is advanced to a hot water or hot air shrink tunnel to induce shrinkage of the bag around the food item.
Currently the process of vacuumizing and sealing is often accomplished by placing bagged articles on the platens of a rotary chamber machine. Rotary chamber machines are well known in the art. Typical are the packaging machine and machine systems developed by Furukawa Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,391 (Kujubu), U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,393 (Furukawa), and 4,640,081 (Kawaguchi et al.), all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Current rotary chamber systems have designed in labor to load bagged articles onto platens. This is in part due to the inability to automate the process, in part due to the flexible nature of bagged food articles and the range of variation associated with bagged articles presented to the rotary chamber system.
Some success has been achieved in staging bagged articles in approximate synchronization using dual infeed systems developed by the Cryovac Division of Sealed Air Corporation. However, actual transfer of bagged articles onto platens of a vacuum/seal apparatus must still be performed manually. In many cases, to achieve full. utilization of the rotary chamber system""s capability, multiple operators are required.
Also, to facilitate heat sealing of the bag neck of each bagged article, the human operator routinely straightens each bag neck to eliminate wrinkles. At present, typical bag loading/sealing/vacuumizing operations include a station at which an operator must manually straighten the bag neck before the loading bag is advanced to a vacuumizing/sealing operation. This procedure is thus prone to human error, and can result in considerable variability in the degree to which the bag neck is undesirably wrinkled prior to sealing.
Additionally, the more a food article or bag containing the article is handled manually, the greater the possibility of microbial contamination.
Thus, despite the existence of these packaging machines and systems, there remains a need for a fully automated food packaging system. There also remains a need for a food packaging system which is not labor intensive, which avoids the need for an operator to manually straighten the bag neck before the loading bag is advanced to a vacuumizing/sealing operation, and which minimizes manual handling of the bagged article.
Current rotary chamber systems have proven to be very reliable and efficient at vacuumizing and sealing bagged food articles. Flexibility remains an important feature of these systems, which frequently handle different articles simultaneously with no change over or interruption in machine operation. It is therefore desirable, in developing a fully automated food packaging system, to maintain the flexibility of the rotary chamber/bag system while eliminating or at least reducing the amount of labor needed to load the system.
In a first aspect, an apparatus comprises a plurality of subplatens each capable of carrying a bagged article, the subplatens each comprising a carrying portion having a top and bottom, a side groove disposed along at least one side of the carrying portion, a bottom groove disposed on the bottom of the carrying portion, and a clamp anvil disposed on the bottom of the carrying portion; a conveyor for advancing the subplatens from a loading station toward a vacuum/seal apparatus, the vacuum/seal apparatus having a plurality of platens capable of moving in a circuit; and a synchronizing assembly capable of loading each subplaten onto a platen of the vacuum/seal apparatus, the synchronizing assembly comprising an endless chain assembly, the chain assembly having a chain capable of being rotated about two spaced apart axes, a plurality of lugs disposed in spaced apart arrangement along the chain; a queuing device disposed near an upstream end of the chain assembly; and a locking pin disposed in an upper surface of at least one platen of the vacuum/seal apparatus.
In a second aspect, a method comprises placing a bagged article on a subplaten, the subplaten comprising a carrying portion having a top and bottom, a side groove disposed along at least one side of the carrying portion, a bottom groove disposed on the bottom of the carrying portion, and a clamp anvil disposed on the bottom of the carrying portion; advancing the subplaten from a loading station toward a vacuum/seal apparatus, the vacuum/seal apparatus having a plurality of platens capable of moving in a circuit; and loading the subplaten, with the bagged article placed thereon, onto a platen of the vacuum/seal apparatus.
In a third aspect, an automated system comprises an apparatus for placing a bagged article onto a subplaten; an apparatus capable of advancing the subplaten, with the bagged product placed thereon, from a loading station toward a platen of a vacuum/seal apparatus; an apparatus capable of loading the subplaten, with the bagged product placed thereon, onto a platen of a vacuum/seal apparatus; and a vacuum/seal apparatus for vacuumizing and sealing the bagged article.
In a fourth aspect, a method comprises placing a bagged article onto a subplaten; advancing the subplaten, with the bagged product placed thereon, toward a platen of a vacuum/seal apparatus; loading the subplaten, with the bagged product placed thereon, onto a platen of a vacuum/seal apparatus; and vacuumizing and sealing the bagged article.
Other details, objects and advantages of the system and the method of the present invention are set forth in the following description and drawings wherein like reference numerals depict like elements.